Tigers double up Yankees

Detroit Tigers' Austin Jackson, right, high-fives Miguel Cabrera after scoring on a double by Torii Hunter during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees in Detroit, Saturday, April 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

And when Brennan Boesch is involved in the play, things happen, too. Weird ones.

A day after Boesch, the former Tiger, made one of the defensive plays of the game, robbing Prince Fielder of an extra-base hit, he was involved in three odd defensive plays — two of them plays at the plate — coming out on the wrong side of all of them.

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His former outfield mate, Jackson, led off four innings in the game, though, reaching base in three, and scoring all three times, as the Tigers won, 8-4.

“Austin gets on base, and you’ve gotta commend him. He’s the table-setter for us. Those guys at the table — Prince Fielder and (Miguel) Cabrera — those guys want to eat, so I’ve got to kind of be the server, and serve it up for them,” said Torii Hunter, who’s watched Jackson’s success from the on-deck circle in each of the Tigers’ five games. “That sets the tone. ... He’s a table-setter and when he gets on base, things happen.”

It seemed like the only things happening early on involved Boesch.

The Yankees had a double, triple and home run in the second inning, but got just one run out of it.

After Vernon Wells led off with a homer, Boesch tripled off the wall in right field, a ball on which his replacement, Hunter, appeared to mistime his jump.

But Hunter redeemed himself by throwing Boesch out at the plate by 10 feet, the play completed when the burly outfielder tried to separate catcher Alex Avila from the ball, but only succeeded in spinning him around.

“When (Boesch) took off, I was excited,” Hunter said. “When he was called out, that fist-pump was a lot of fun. That adrenaline flows. Can’t really hold that back.”

In the Tigers’ four-run fifth inning, the second run scored when Victor Martinez lined out to Boesch in right, and Cabrera scored safely when Boesch’s throw — in an effort to match Hunter’s feat — was wide to the first-base side.

It would get the weirdest in the top of the sixth. Al Alburquerque inherited a pair of runners from starter Max Scherzer, and walk the bases loaded, bringing Boesch to the plate. The lefty would line out to first base, and Prince Fielder appeared to double off Vernon Wells, who was tardy returning to the bag.

“I was hoping it was right at Prince and I was right. Prince stepped on first,” Scherzer said. “I saw it was a double play and he was called safe and we all lost it in the dugout.”

After a conference of the umpires — where first base umpire Brian O’Nora appealed to home plate ump Jerry Layne for assistance — Wells was ruled out.

“You know what? I respect that. Obviously, he missed it, and he went and got a second opinion, with Jerry, and it worked out. I respect that. You can’t do nothing but like a guy like Brian O’Nora. I mean, he went and told Jerry, ‘What do you think?’ And Jerry said, ‘He’s out.’ I love it,” Hunter said. “I don’t want to be on the other side, but ... I love it.”

Alburquerque would give up a two-run single to Overbay to trim the Tigers’ lead to 5-4, but it could’ve been far worse.

In the seventh, Alex Avila singled to lead off the inning, but was doubled off by Boesch when he inexplicably ran on Ramon Santiago’s fly ball one batter later.

So, in total, Boesch was involved in three attempts at double plays from the outfield, and one unassisted double play on the infield.

Aside from the oddity of those stats, it was all about the table setting, though.

The Tigers got an unearned run in the first inning, as Jackson reached on an error, went to third on a single by Miguel Cabrera, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Prince Fielder. It’s the fifth straight game that Jackson has reached base in his first at-bat — the first four were on singles — and he’s scored on four of the five.

Detroit added four more runs in the fifth, when Jackson led off with a single, and scored on an RBI double by Hunter. A Fielder single would put runners at the corners, setting up Martinez’s sacrifice fly to right, and Jhonny Peralta would add an RBI single, making it 5-1.

Jackson singled to start the sixth, as well, scoring on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice by Fielder. Andy Dirks, who’d come into the game 0-for-9, tacked on another run with his second consecutive single, making it 7-4.

“I think it puts more pressure on the other team when those guys are out there and you’ve got the big guys coming up,” Leyland said. “That’s pretty stressful.”

Cabrera, who went 4-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored, led off the eighth with his third straight hit, and scored on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Dirks.

“Yeah, that’s the way you envision it. You wish it could be like that every night, but that’s what we’re going to try to do every night,” Hunter said of the offensive balance, which had six different Tigers drive in a run. “Today is the perfect day — and it’s why I signed here as a free agent — to look at something like that.”

The run support was more than Scherzer needed.

Through three innings, four of the seven balls the Yankees put in play were hits, and all to the wall or beyond.

Then Scherzer would settle down, and retire seven straight through the start of the fifth inning, when he’d walk the first two batters. He’d exit with no outs in the sixth, after giving up an RBI single to Travis Hafner to make it 5-2, becoming the fourth Tigers starter through one turn through the rotation to go 5 1/3 innings.

“(Scherzer was) very good. I think probably the long delay there that inning probably contributed to him being a little bit wild when he went back out. But he was good. Really pleased. Build on that one,” Leyland said. “All the starters, we’ve been through the rotation one time, hopefully they can go a little bit longer next time out, hopefully, and that’ll shorten up the bullpen responsibility, which should work for everybody.”

Scherzer struck out seven in the win.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Journal Register Company. Email him at matt.mowery@oakpress.com and follow him on Twitter @matthewbmowery.